Foolish Games
by DomoLurv
Summary: Despite their similar detached personalities and own inclinations with death, both Itachi and Hana were polar opposites drawn together in every way possible, soon to find how very alike both angels and demons are. ItachixOC.
1. House of Bleach and White

**House of Bleach and White**

_You took your coat off and stood in the rain  
You were always crazy like that  
I watched from my window  
Always felt I was outside looking in on you_

It was raining again...

Somehow, even when the bright cloudless skies in the distance were as still as a mountain, by nightfall a tremendous downpour had begun. Only recently this odd weather pattern had appeared, but as days turned into weeks, Hana's weary eyes soon grew tired of the everlasting night showers. With only a pittance of attention spared to the water logged world outside the window, Hana's eyes drew from the darkness of the village streets and back into the warm, comforting room that had been hers since the day she had taken her first breath.

'_And still, since then nothing has happened in this boring, stagnant place I call home..._' She thought bitterly, eyes glancing over the wooden tray of cold ramen which had been abandoned hours previous.

Stifling the urge to rampant the room with an arrogant rage, Hana slowly unclasped her chilling hands from around her knees and stood with a creaking lurch. Since the beginning of late evening, as the vibrant red moon cast an uncompromising stare across the busy village, Hana's soft blue eyes cast an inquisitive stare upon the outside world, watching; waiting; wishing through a single window that had been her company for thirteen long years.

"Hana, why haven't you eaten your dinner?"

Staring for a good few seconds, the deceitful blue eyes of Hana landed suspiciously onto her mothers, staring into the dark brown that made them both so utterly different. "I wasn't hungry..." She replied curtly, turning her gaze back towards the window.

"You should have said that when you brother brought it in for you," the woman spoke as she leaned over and retrieved the tray of cold food from the floor.

"I told him when he came in. He didn't listen, and neither did you." Hana spoke, her blue eyes dulling as her mother gave an un-empathetic stare from her place in the doorway.

With a scolding shake of the head, her mother's dark eyes gave a disappointed and demanding voice that reverberated louder than any command from her calm throat. "You know Hana; my answer will always be the same. I listened to your request, and I said no- it's as simple as that."

"That's not simple at all!" Came Hana's shrill reply. There would be tears to accompany the painful exclamation, but they had drowned out years before the rain came to provoke.

"Please Hana, don't raise you voice like that. I get enough trouble from your brother and his tantrums... You should understand by now, you simply cannot leave this house." With a sigh, not in compassion but in annoyance, her mother turned from Hana's vicious gaze and walked towards the open door. "Your father will be home soon, so I suggest you tidy yourself up, he's bringing guests."

Her head sunk, the locks that naturally curled her brown locks into waves and long thick curls falling past her shoulders and down her back, covering her forlorn face. She could still see through the river of waving hair, like a drowning animal looking up into the world before its breath is ripped from its tired body, her mother gently gave another stern look from the hall and turned on her heels as she walked out of sight.

Blue eyes that could never match the brown, hard, solid wooden ones of her mother, Hana was constantly losing the longing battle to see what was on the other side of the hollow glass she looked through each night. It was frightening, to never win a single glance of sympathy, to once gain a strand of trust within the untrusting hairs that skewered her body- the one Hana loved dearly, held close and cried for and over, it was tormenting to never see any signs of understanding from the woman, from her own mother.

She stood, a protective casting of hair across her face, honey in colour, dancing defiantly as it slowly slipped to her shoulders, releasing her hollow face and allowing her cold blue eyes to view completely once again. With one last glance back at the empty windowsill, the water logged glass blurring reality from her fantasy world; Hana let out a constricted breath and left the sterile room. Such an obscure grasp of the reality of her own village was distressing.

Feet bare upon the cold wooden floor boards, mind numb from bitter thoughts and eyes glazed with cold emotions, Hana's face shadowed with an angry wrath of an uncertain temper. Something more commonly shared within her family, behind closed doors.

That was always how she walked, as that was how she felt. But it wasn't always the deathly still hallways which lead to her family's bedroom- unused by day. Hana, barred into a slowly placed sanctuary of people without consent was a prisoner to this world. There was nothing but her house, her family and visitors to keep her company in this ward- a place she reclined in, but only upon orders. Being terminal had many disappointments beyond that of a certain nearing death...

_  
__You were always the mysterious one with dark eyes and careless hair  
You were fashionably sensitive, but too cool to care  
Then you stood in my doorway, with nothing to say  
Besides some comment on the weather_

"Hana, you didn't put on anything else?" Your mother lectured as she rushed around the kitchen, preparing dishes with fish and rice hastily.

Feeling more than a little annoyed at the comment, Hana was sure her baggy shirt and shorts were fitting to show her true status in this family. Any visitor was sure to know her sickness; her clothes mirrored those found in an institution. Comfy, loose and easily replaced. There was no remittance paid to her satisfaction, Hana was imprisoned and therefore acted as if she were in a hostile environment- her mother knew all too well how stubborn and purposefully vindictive her young daughter had been raised to be.

Hana gave a slow glance towards her huskily working mother before resting on the bored looking boy sitting cross legged at the large table in front of her. "No... I prefer these," she replied simply before ignoring the slight grunt from her mother and pacing slowly to accompany her unamused brother at the table.

"Hey Hana-chan, you know who Dad invited over tonight?" Hana's little brother brought up in a rush, his brashly shinning brown eyes flashing with hidden agenda- quite unusual for such a carefree, young boy.

With a glance at the broody looking boy, whose hands were currently stabbing random places on the wooden table with a chopstick; Hana couldn't help but smile at the energetic brother her parents so distressingly managed. "Hm, is it someone important?" She asked, baiting his apparent temper. With his grip hardening on the chopstick, the utensil cracked in his fist and Hana's eyebrows rose as her brother threw the broken wood aside and balled fists.

"Of course they're important! When doesn't father invite important people over? Geeze Hana-chan, even I'm smart enough to figure that out..." The boy announced obnoxiously, his eyes flattened as both of them heard a loud chuckle come from the kitchen. "Mum, stop eves dropping on our _private _conversation!"

"Sorry, but you do talk excessively loud Kanuko, dear!" She replied quickly.

"Yeah, so anyway, guess who's coming?" With a quick glance at Kanuko Hana shrugged, ready to hear an answer she couldn't have possibly known. "It's those damn Uchiha folks!"

"Kanuko! Please, do not speak like that about people you do not know!" Their mother scolded with a raised voice, her arched brows and sloping frown making Hana's own mouth crease.

"Oh, I know them. I know the stupid Uchiha Sasuke! He's always being all lonerish and shy, keeping to himself all the time, but he's always getting everyone's attention and getting super good grades. You know, before he came everyone in school used to think I was strong, now everyone just likes stupid Sasuke-baka..."

"Sounds like every other guy in your Academy class which gets a better mark than you." Hana let out with a slight laugh, her eyes lighting up as her little brother pouted with glaring eyes straight back at her.

It wasn't strange for the two to get along much better than either did with their parents; they were siblings to the same, overly-pragmatic parents after all. A chuckle, a laugh, a smile: these simple things were recognized as only Kanuko's doing. He was a cute little boy, still lacking understanding into life and such, but his blissfully ignorant attitude still had yet to make Hana feel uncomfortable. Childhood innocence was a contagious thing.

Hana brushed a hand over her brother's head, ruffling the dark black spikes which he sculpted each morning under her flattened hand. Flicking her wrist away with a simple swish of his hand, Hana watched as the brooding young Kanuko stood in a huff and stormed away to have another temper tantrum, somewhere more isolated and away from scrutiny.

It was still and boring without her brother to listen to. The entire house seemed that way, at least most the time. The cold wooden floor boards constantly creaking as the night grew darker and later, still white walls devoid of paintings and portraits, merely bare walls that lacked any taste or tact. Just as Hana's previous home for months was, the more secluded home that she was raised in was no longer a place of comfort. Her room was reserved for that, and the hospital-like home was just that to her- another hospital.

"Hana, we have company. Quick, go fetch your brother before your father has to find him!" Came the call of Hana's mother, the clashing of dishes once again quickening as she could hear the front door open.

Standing from her spot, Hana pushed herself onwards and slowly, with almost lethargic movements, came upon the same hallway as before and crossed the silent cold path, heading towards the door of her younger brother's room. The young ninja enjoyed his alone time more than Hana would care for, her time was always spent in these halls wandering aimlessly- but the feelings of her loneliness were somewhat unclear to Kanuko, he was ignorant to her suffering and tended to sparingly spend his precious free moments with his older sister. Sighing at the thought, with a hand drawn upwards, Hana brought one of her pale, delicate and thin hands to the frame of Kanuko's door and knocked lightly, waiting for permission to enter from the similarly temperamental boy.

"What?" Came Kanuko's angry reply, his face popping into Hana's view, his father's old hitai-ate messily pinned to his forehead.

"The Uchiha's are here. We have to see them in..." Hana took a long stare at the rusting, gaudy headband and wanted to there and then throw it back into a box to grow webs and be forgotten. "You shouldn't touch father's things, even if they are old, they are treasures to him." Blue eyes met brown, again for the second time that day a misunderstanding was met and the dull eyes of Kanuko flickered elsewhere as he loosened the headband and threw it to his bed unhappily. Hana frowned, allowing Kanuko to trailed listlessly around her and stomp down the hall ahead, chin peaking up as he tramped onwards.

The walk was slower this time, the discontent shared between the two siblings to meet these strangers -these rivals- it was unnerving to be so uncomfortable in such a place of lonesome sanctuary. Home was a place that Hana had spent years recollecting in, pacing paths with unorderly thought and disjointed sight, but this time the rigid condensed air of disapproval was present. Meeting strangers was something the young girl was not accustom to, and having to relate, to talk, interact with people that she had never known- it was like that fantasy world, the one she looked out of every night...

"Ah- there you are, my children." The corner was the slowest part, time standing as the constricting atmosphere of hate, interest, discontent and shyness collided, the first image being Hana and Kanuko's father smiling upon them in that stern, stiff way he somehow managed to force.

His dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin, he was a sincere man but the innards of his gill like lungs lacked to understand anything akin to emotion or feeling. He was a very misunderstanding man who stole away speech, encrypting the form of thought which most people abide their minds by and grappling a hanger of weapons upon those he wished to hold onto; he suffocated those he held dear. A great man to many men and ninja in this village, and that sacrifice made him a dismal father figure. Enlistment in the force would have been a similar endowment.

"This is my youngest son, Kanuko, and my eldest daughter, Hana." He introduced simply, wavering a gestured hand towards the two children whom had no positive thought in their minds as they looked lazily towards their father.

Hana folded her arms grumpily, unsatisfied with the interested eyes which grazed upon her reclined form. A quick drawing glance over their heads, there were two adults, the young Sasuke looking timidly in your direction with worried eye, and another son, an older one. Taken aback, she had almost forgotten that the Uchiha's had more than one son.

Hana blinked, stunned for a second.

Long black hair, much like his mothers, tied into a loose pony tail, all with matching darkly alluring eyes. Unlike the hardened brown of her dissimilar family, his were more onyx and more stone in nature. He wore what any Uchiha his age would, a large clan marked shirt with white short, and his feet clad into the usual ninja-styled sandals. At first he seemed shocking, having someone so audacious become so suddenly noticeable sent shivers up her already chilling spine; he was a mysterious character that she had indeed seen before, same dark eyes and careless hair. Even his bored gaze, almost more fierce and forceful than noticeably intended, sent a thrilling twinge of disparagement through her body.

'_Uchiha Itachi_...' Hana thought as her eyes skimmed past him, colder than before, still and almost steel in colour.

There was a strange awkward silence from the four children, both siblings from both sides wishing to be elsewhere rather than wasting such precious time doing uninteresting social favours for their communalizing parents. Hana had already met the small young Sasuke before, and countless times she had seen the older Itachi converse stoically with her father, if only for a brief few seconds and under the intensity of a tense, hidden agenda no doubt.

"Well- Fugaku, Mikoto, Itachi, you must be famished. Would you like to join us in the dining room?" Hana's mother moved politely, gesturing for the smiling Uchiha parents to join them for some dinner, "Sasuke, if you'd like you can go and play with Kanuko in his room. Hana, you may go rest now..."

With a reguardless glance towards her parent's friends, Hana turned with a scowl and walked with her same slow pace back around the corner and away from all their prying dark eyes. For even a second she didn't bother to pretend, hide her emotions and thoughts, merely masking her face with discontent as her cold blue eyes wandered back towards her oncoming room- hungerless, tired and worn Hana was ready to collapse onto her softly covered bed. One thing awaited her to cure her of the exhaustion she suffered from after fatiguing days filled of nothing.

Sleep.

With a struggled sigh, Hana closed her aching eyes and rested her now throbbing head. As she pathetically sprawled across the large bed, her hands fumbled with the blankets so she could finally warm her chilled body. It was a slow process, and by the time Hana had crawled into the deep embrace of her warm bed, her body gave a churning lurch, ready to be rested as her rotting insides ticked onwards, waiting to give into the sickening pain they were subjected to so eagerly each and every day- ready to die.

_  
Well in case you failed to notice, in case you failed to see  
This is my heart bleeding before you, this is me down on my knees  
These foolish games are tearing me apart  
Your thoughtless words are breaking my heart_

There was a loud crash, the echo of its dull thud contemptuously drowned out by the loud husky laugh of the parents in the dining room, joyous and blissful as they downed another round of Sake. But their blind eyes and un-tuned ears were not as near as Hana's, the loud thud and thunderous cries of rage afterwards ringing harshly in her ears. The chilling night's waking air was frosty at best, the unmotivated blue eyes of Hana staring in annoyance up towards the roof as the arguing young boys across the hall never ceased to hush a word of silence, offering discomfort to the worn pale girl.

"Kanuko... "Hana called in warning."Kanuko, don't be a brat. Kanuko!" Hana yelled angrily, the drafting cold air in the room rushing to her once again chilling body as she ripped the cover off her frail body.

With the withdraw of her warm cocoon, the exhausted Hana swerved off her bed and slowly, creaking both floor boards and bones as she shuffled across the hallway, away from the comfort of her room, jittering as she forcefully slid the door to Kanuko's door open and stared disgracefully upon the two screeching children. Hands caught in each other's hair, pulling tufts hard enough to bring tears, angry raw pink faces glaring and watering as they grappled fierce yanks upon each other. They cried and huffed as their grips tightened and nails came down to scratch each other's eyes out.

"Stop it, stop it now!" With a lunge forward, Hana grabbed at the shirt of her brother in a desperate attempt to separate the two, both their cries still taunting the throb in her head.

With a tug of Kanuko's shirt the bigger boy came stumbling off the fuming Sasuke as his own harsh pants and seething grinding of teeth became like that of a wild dogs, "Sasuke-baka, you little punk!" Kanuko provoked, Hana's grip on his shirt still secure.

"You're the punk! Take what you said about my brother back!" The small Sasuke yelled, standing defiantly with balled fists, hot tears still streaming down his face.

"Not until you take what you said about my sister back!" Kanuko barked, twice as harsh.

"Stop it, the both of you! You're acting like spoilt brats." Hana stated, her blue eyes once again met with a misunderstanding with the dark one's of the two boys, stark, roughed and crying and both boys began to stare like two lost puppies, intent on finding condolence within one's comfort. "Please, you don't need to fight, both of you are getting carried away. Pitiful childish tantrums are for spoilt little brats, and I know neither of you are immature enough to act like this... please don't fight."

"Hana-chan..." Kanuko turned, looking over the ghostly girl as her eyes were shallow and her face was pale. He seemed almost scared, staring at such a haunting face, tinged with purples and greens as the exhaustion of the day caught up to her vulnerable form.

"Sasuke, you're being annoying to our hosts."

The voice was deep, almost haunting in all respect, harshly blunt towards the now shocked looking young boy before her. With a slight turn of her neck, Hana's deeply drained eyes flickered over the frowning figure of Uchiha Itachi, his position in the doorway incriminating the little brother's as he paced his actions with surplus. He was commanding in some indefinable way, his mere presence suffering a blow to every offender in the room.

"Aniki... I- I didn't..." Sasuke looked down, his round black eyes watering as the taller brother before him seemed unsightly harsh upon his younger sibling.

Hana, with a deep distaste towards the older boy's actions, gracelessly stood with a rigid movement and gave the slack headed Sasuke a slight smile of encouragement as his brother stared. "As long as you say you're sorry, Kanuko will apologize also..."

"What- I never agreed to that! Why would I apologize to Sasuke-brat for saying you're a weirdo?" Kanuko screeched, Itachi giving him a passive glance.

"Kanuko... you're the one being the brat here." Hana stated, her brother groaning in annoyance to her blunt truth.

"If you don't mind, I'm very tired so I'm going back to bed... and Itachi, I don't think you need to be so critical of you brother. He's just a child, after all..." Hana snarkily added, her blue eyes wandering off all human life and vaguely disjointed vision laid flickering light upon the doorway which lead to her room.

Itachi stayed deathly silent, his stone eyes passively watching as Hana lurched her way back towards her room, taking note of the provocative sway to her head and stutter in her step as she almost drunkenly made her way back into her room. Analyzing the weak girls form, Itachi then turned back towards the almost stunned looking boys and then back towards the door Hana uncarefuly left slightly ajar.

"Aniki?" The small voice of Sasuke piped, rippling a wave of realization back into his brother's mind.

"Sasuke, maybe I should walk you home now. Kanuko, I'm sorry for everything." Itachi spoke, Sasuke clambering across the messily floor to join his brother in relief, finally free of the house in which he knew nothing of. "Please tell Hana-san my apologies for disturbing her."

"Sure, whatever..." Kanuko muttered, uncomfortably looking towards Itachi's and Sasuke's forms as they drew away from his door and disappeared around the end of the hallway.

Shuffling around the room a little longer, kicking messily strewn objects on the floor into less obstructive messes near the walls of his room, Kanuko sighed with discontent and decrepitly sat down on his bed with a harsh groan. Glaring once again, the young boy ripped the covers off his bed in slight anger, and with a grunt from his sore throat, dozed quickly into a sleep of warmth and comfort.

While the racket of the two brawling boys laid to rest as Itachi accompanied his younger brother home, the sleepless Hana was drained of energy and longed for a rejuvenating slumber- replenish the lost stillness within her decaying body. But as the circulating drunken laughs of her and the Uchiha parents persisted, the careless blue eyes that didn't match her families store with unwilling emotion as the cold Autumn air sapped away thought and feeling.

Only a vague image in her head laid her to rest, as the harsh goodbyes of the joyous parents left the house miserably quiet, just as the hospital used to be. A pair of glaring red eyes, black pins spinning as a focusing kaleidoscope does. It was strangling all hope, all happiness and all oxygen out of her body. Leaving the red eyes to stare through the seams of her eyelids, at the back of her mind the quivering Hana slept with haunting images of a murderous red eyed man, strangely at ease to the frightening concept of death...

_You're breaking my heart_


	2. Dusty Shelves

**Dusty Shelves**

_You were always brilliant in the morning  
Smoking your cigarettes and talking over coffee  
You philosophies on art, Baroque moved you__You loved Mozart and you'd speak of your loved ones_

_As I clumsily strummed my guitar_

The sun shone vibrantly that morning.

It was so contrasting to the previous night that when Hana turned in her bed to meet the sun's late morning rays, her face curled into a quietly understanding smile. With eyes as ecstatic as the rays of light emptying into the room, Hana slowly drew her warm body from her sheets and placed her feet to the wooden floor intently. Feet staying still for a few seconds, Hana lurched slightly as her stomach churned deep within her, displeased with not being fed the previous night. But more important things were on her mind today. Things she had asked about so many times, but until now never found the fuel to accomplish...

'_Today... things are going to much different_.' Hana thought with a determined glance to the clear glass window to her side. '_Today... I'm going to be the one outside, being watched upon by others_!'

Quickly tearing her icy eyes from the fantasy world that lingered forever in the unreachable realm behind the glass that separated her life from reality, Hana began her search. Never really needing them, shoes were a very uncommon possession of hers, as she had lived the past five years indoors and under the protection of floorboards and tiles.

Fruitlessly searching, Hana quickly found no shoes in her room, and as quickly as her body would take her, cautiously rounded into the hallway and to Kanuko's room. Yes, he may have been quite a few years younger than she was, but Hana's feet were delicate and smaller in size than even her mother's. Kanuko was bound to have a pair that would fit her bony feet.

Sliding the door open, making sure not to awake the snoring boy, Hana crept silently towards the array of messily strewn clothing items on the floor. Drawing a weak hand to the pile, sorting through shirts, shorts and boxers, Hana finally came upon a single pair of black, loosely fitting and small-in-sized ninja sandals and scooped them into her hands quickly. Not wishing to waken her brother, she stepped carefully back across the room and winced vaguely as she slid the door shut painfully slow.

"Okay, I'll be seeing you later Kanuko-kun..." She whispered, kissing her hand kindly and pressing it to the door smiling. "Don't hate me for taking your shoes. I'm sure you'll be the only one to understand."

With a creasing crack like noise erupting from her neck with every step, Hana cringed inwardly as her stomach gave another groan of neglect, only increasing the pin pricking pain in her head. Despite all this, with feet now clad in a pair of loose ninja sandals, Hana walked carefully onwards with a desperate will to reach the front door.

The white walls, frightening her worried mind, only gave more of a repressive want and need to make it into the outside world. Segregated for so many years, being unkemptly reminded of how such a harsh world wasn't for such delicate people, it was hard to imagine how impossibly calming the morning air really was... and the second Hana's arm reached the front double doors, sliding each aside, a long withheld sigh of relentless longing was realised within a fractional moment.

"I don't know why, but somehow seeing through a window just seems so incomparable to all this. The smell, touch, everything!" Hana exasperatedly let out, her vibrantly blue eyes matching the sunny autumn day.

Arms outstretched, feet heated by the large black sandals and face warming to the every ray of light that was filtered through a slightly blooming sakura tree, Hana could hardly believe she was out there, and so uncannily easily. She had been afraid, she admitted that adherently, afraid of what would happen to her if she grew too weak to get back home or others became ill too. But with a sweeping sense of understanding of her time to come, Hana knew it was now or never... time was such a precious thing to her, and biding more of it was an intolerably ignorant thing to do. Life is a precious, delicate and short thing, and Hana knew that it would never last forever. Those haunting red, demonic eyes that watched through her sleep had reminded her of her own compulsion- her needs and wants- before that precious time was over. She may have allowed thoughts and images of death in her dreams, but while she was awake, life awaited her.

Somehow, as the warming sun happily cast a serene setting around her, Hana knew that time was something that she had little left of.

_  
You'd teach me of honest things  
Things that were daring, things that were clean  
Things that knew what an honest dollar did mean_

_So I hid my soiled hands behind my back  
Somewhere along the line I must've gone off track with you_

Sitting on the edge of a wooden wharf, crafted only recently by the thickly varnished glow on its surface, Hana gleefully smiled at her reflection as the sun shimmered doubtfully. The sun, once only a small glowing speck in the sky, was now closely approaching the horizons edge, casting a brilliant orange glow upon the water as the sun became engorged. The day had passed quicker than she would have liked, but nevertheless, Hana had enjoyed her insightful day. With the culmination of her sickness bristling quite apparent in her head and body, Hana knew that she had been encouraged well by the red eyes of a tempting demon- one which knew when her time to pass was, for what other force could have seen into the future?

Hair, still recklessly curling in thick locks into her lowered face, felt light as the calm wind brushed it from side to side evenly. A smile graced the content girl, never once feeling so bright, warm and happy in a single day. Never knowing who to thank for the push of fate. Still Hana felt the press of tears as she watched her sandal clad feet absently.

"How will you ever get your sandals back, my poor Kanuko?" She commented, still a small smile brushing at the ends of her face. "It would have been nice to hear you worry about me, at least one more time..."

A distant call of a bird echoed through the lake before her, reaching Hana's ears and pulling her gaze towards a single, flying black raven as it passed noisily by. It was strange for such an animal to be calling so late in the day, but nothing could dim or cause anxious thoughts in Hana's mind, her eyes watching the bird disappear behind the Konoha forest.

'_I was hopeful enough to say goodbye to you... but it seems that I don't have enough energy to get home to say my farewells_.'

A letter was clutched into one hand. Slightly wrinkled and messily written all over with an old, ink blotting quill, the letter was addressed to Hana's family. It was a reminder to them, if she ever found a way to get home in time, that she had preferred it this way... that she preferred dusty shelves to remain forgotten.

"You shouldn't be out here. You're parents wouldn't be very happy."

That same dark voice came, chilling every corner of her warming body with its malintention. Its was hard to tell at first, whether it was his true tone that caused such a misconception, but easily Hana had realised that tall, dark eyed and rugged haired boy behind her was a fine work of art. He was a ninja after all, concealing meanings within meanings. Deceptive as he was, the façade he imbued was perfect in every way to any stranger but her.

"I wasn't aware that you had my parent's happiness on your agenda." Hana replied, her electric coloured eyes flashing a deeper blue in annoyance.

Silence.

Staring with cold eyes Hana assumed, the prodigy Uchiha Itachi stood with folded arms as he inquisitively looked over the resting girl before her. Strangely enough, Itachi's eyes didn't emit a cold contempt for the girl she was sure they would have done last night, but were wearily alike the one's she used each day to stare out that same, shielding window. Shallow and alone, he seemed almost melancholic with such a depressed look shimmering in the water reflection.

Losing her smile, Hana lowered her gaze slightly as the footsteps of the Uchiha brought her creaking neck to shoot up again and meet his tall figure that stood above her. Staring into his shadow like reflection in the water first, Hana slowly leaned forward, moving her feet to meet the wooden planks of the wharf, before rigidly standing into a straight position. Turning, a sweeping motion that her body didn't take nicely too, it gave Hana a tightening slur in her stomach as her eyes flickered to meet Itachi's. Harshly cold despite how they seemed in the reflection, but still vibrantly blue eyes met with the stone-solid unnerving red ones

"Huh...?" Hana sputtered, eyed flaring into wide orbs as the red demon eyes shone before her, jumping back with utter shock.

Tripping over her ill placed and rather lanky long and thin legs, Hana gave a sharp yelp as her eyes closed shut, body falling harshly past the wooden planks of the wharf, heading towards the still water below it.

Hands ingeniously outstretched, before Hana could collide with the chilling water which waited for her cold and still, a strong grip wrapped around her outstretched wrist speedily. Hand clasped around the small of her wrist, Hana gasped a strenuous breath of relief as the powerful gripping hand of Itachi's pulled her body back to its original, rigidly standing place. A breathe of relief came from her throat, eyes wide now as she store up at Itachi with frightful awe.

"You should watch yourself more closely." Itachi commented, his hand still remaining regardlessly clamped onto Hana's now shaking wrist, warm and firm against her frail form.

Heart pounding against her ribs with a continuous crack with every second pump, Hana's wide, azure eyes rimmed with more salty tears as Itachi's now red eyes store almost demanding straight into her own. A decrepit feeling in her stomach gave way as the alluring spinning of Hana's head swayed her vision, displacing everything but the staring red eyes of the Uchiha.

Finally deeming it fit to release her pale and delicately thin wrist, Itachi ungrasped his hand and looked down onto the blue tinged skin that lay a wake of her frail, tender and easily-bruising skin that contrasted to his large, strong hands. Withdrawing his hands suddenly, looking away from the easy work that had created such a large, bulging purple and blue bruise, Itachi stood with a passive stare as he considered the trees in the distance.

"Last night, before I came and took Sasuke home, your parents were talking about you." Itachi stated, eyes still avoiding the stunned looking blue ones.

Hana gave an unflattering glance towards the same trees Itachi was staring at, rendering her vision from where he was avoiding her misunderstood blue eyes, head swarming unkindly as the internal clock within her body gave an ache and ticked a fraction slower. Impatience and interest were conflicting, and it made her mind wearier.

"They do that a bit... they like to win sympathy for beneficial purposes." She remarked with a stale tone, content with simply wondering whether his red eyed were a mere unreasonable image within her own mind, or truly the ones that were watching her the night before.

"You're not well. You should go home, before your brother worries about you more." Itachi offered, turning his feet suddenly and trooping towards the large grassy hill that over watched the wharf.

"Wait!" Han called, desperately wishing she hadn't been so confidently cold with her usual dulled dislike for the tall, eldest Uchiha son.

Silence.

Again it came, relentless and as unnerving as the first. Its strange presence almost constricting the physical holds of all things scientific. The wind became scarcely noticeable, all sound filtering away into an abnormally quiet vacuum which left the deft world slow and unnaturally beautiful. As if the same feelings inside Hana had begun, a calmness that was shaken only by the stillness of her head and stomach as the slowly ticking clock within her came to a speeding race.

"I had a dream about you last night..." Itachi let out cautiously, his voice low and questioning. "Your eyes were watching me, judging me. My decision to do what I must has now been made... you gave me a strength that no one's ever given me before. The strength to do what I know must be done. And I thank you for that, for showing me the reason why I must do these things."

A thump of the heart, only for once not cracking against the fragile holds of her ribs.

"I dreamt of you too." Hana let out before she knew what she was doing, immediately regretting her words as heat rose to her cheeks. Itachi stood still for a moment as a slight smile caressed his young face, his head turning slightly to crane over and watch Hana over his shoulder.

"Then I guess we do have something in common, after all." And with that he was walking again, the haunting ghost of a smile etched onto his lips as he retreated away.

Flushing slightly, Hana stared on in awe as the retreating form of Itachi drew all her attention and made her chest flutter with an indescribable feeling of weightlessness. Was this infatuation? Love? Want? Whatever the feeling was inside Hana's wildly beating chest was, it made her entire body come back to life, if even for those few seconds before her hands unclenched, dropping the scribbled note addressed to her family.

'_An angel with blue eyes_... _who dreams of demons_.' The Uchiha thought, the visage of his newly obtained mangekyo sharingan, glinting at the equally as haunting memory of his cousin's dead body. Yes, the unfortunate time was nearing. Itachi felt his own heart clench horribly for once, his new mission directive finally decided.

_  
Well excuse me, think I've mistaken you for somebody else  
Somebody who gave a damn, somebody more like myself_

_These foolish games are tearing me apart_


	3. Devious Games

**Devious Games**

_You're tearing me, tearing me, tearing me apart..._

There was an unusual stagnant feel about the house when Hana arrived back home. Frightful yells were erupting from the dining room, both her parents and Kanuko calling deafening shouts out as they thrilled around the room slamming their fists on walls and tables in anger. Giving a weary stare at the door in contemplation, Hana was aware of the consequences of her actions, but the feeling of defending her honour seemed much harder as she drew the front double doors open.

"The doctor said, she's sick and she's not getting any better!" The screeching shout of Kanuko came, briskly making its echoing noise through the now seemingly dirty and unsanitary walls.

"Kanuko, this is not the time to be arguing about such things!" His mother yelled in reprise; constantly telling him that it was not the time to talk of such things, it seemed the time had and never would come.

"The doctors said that though, that she only has a few months. Why, is it such an important matter to you that you couldn't possibly discuss it with the one who's going to be losing his greatest friend, his own sister to a death's bed by winter?!"

There was an odd silence as Hana shakily paced with an arching back towards the now empty room, the only noise was her pattering feet as she rounded the corner and met with the three cold, dull and misunderstanding stares of her family. Eyes, as brown as brown can be, never in contemplation to the blue one's that store back, only in contempt did they mistrusting glare onto them. All three seemed shocked at her sudden entrance, but only in their own angered ways did they then morph into three weary expressions of anger.

A stunned, almost foreboding air formed in the room, a hot and sticky feel in the atmosphere turning such a sweet autumnal day into a stale stormy night. Hana could feel it, the cold and dark clouds forming in frightening swirls above their heads in the sky above. It was going to rain again, but as soon as her father had stood tall, arrogantly storming towards her and yanking her arm while leading her away, she knew somehow that the rain wasn't going to end by daybreak tomorrow morning.

Stumbling through the hall in silence, Hana's father shot an accusing look towards his daughter as they stopped outside of her lonely, dank room. Tightening his grip on her shoulder, Hana winced in pain as another purple bruise formed on her body the second time that day. Glancing around with weary, tearless eyes, Hana was thrown forwards onto her bed as her father stood demandingly over her.

"You selfish, silly girl!"

His shouts emitted a soft echo through the street, the eerie night that began to sink darker into the land beginning to be washed with the harsh tears of the sky. Pelting downwards the window in the far corner of the room, Hana's vision of misconception of the beautiful world outside of this hold was briskly being covered with cold water droplets.

"Do you have any idea how worried we've been! You could have been hurt, you could have **died**!" Mouth spluttering saliva as he bellowed, Hana looked sadly away from her shouting father. "Look at you, girl! You're covered in dirt, you're hairs a mess and you're feet… at least you had the dignity to cover them up!"

"Is it that you have absolutely no remorse for me that you'd never let me wander out for a single day, let me enjoy myself before I do die... are you really that selfish, father?" Hana spat, eyes narrowing as the towering figure before her fumed.

"I protect you out of love, and what do you do? You run away without as little as telling your own brother! Now that is selfish, not only spitefully panicking me and your mother, but your brother too. If you had been too weak to get home what would we have done!? Where is your respect?" Came the outraged reply.

"Respect... tell me, is it out of respect for my final day of living that you keep me deprived of my own love and life experiences, or out of shame? Am I really such a pathetic, fragile and servile like creature that you punish me for my sufferings with more of it!"

Tears, angry hot white tears that had forever flooded her feelings, fell like heavy weights and drowned her feelings in a miserable, contemptuous pain. As the depressive blue blurs once again met with the compassionless ones of a deep honey brown, there was a dismal flicker of understanding in them.

"Leave..." Hana muttered, her dirty brown hair covering her weeping face as her shoulders shook angrily, her fists clenched tightly in her lap.

"Hana, I am your father-"

"I said leave! Get out of my room; I never want to see you again!" Hana screamed, face flaring in such a rage her father turned frightfully from her form and quickly left her in the peace of an empty, loveless world of mistrust.

_Your thoughtless words are breaking my heart_

It was raining again…

The soft pattering on the roof never gave way for a second. The endless sound of falling rain had forever filled Hana's mind, the claming sound never ceasing for a moment to allow a second of peace. Both warming and cold, the rain pelted at times and then drizzled loudly in others, like a harmonious symphony created by the pattering of the water.

Hana, today sitting by the haunting window once again, found it increasingly difficult to breathe. Watching, eyes shadowed with doubt and fear, the ticking inside her body grew to a grueling movement, almost to the point of ceasing. But amongst the thoughtless rein of unhappiness, the blue eyed creature perched with folded legs on the windowsill had only one thing wrenched into her slowing mind.

Red; beautiful red, hate-filled eyes.

Itachi's red eyes had filled every dreamless rest she had through the night, and remembering the words he had spoken the day before, a fiery flutter in her sickening gut brought new warmth to her cheeks. Love was something that Hana had never experienced in her life, and with closed eyes, Hana knew secretly that every flutter and flush was not love- it was something alike, but not the same.

Kanuko had briefly slithered into her room during the night to bid a fare conversation to the disturbed girl, but had quickly retreated when the angry crashes of their parents in the dining room emitted a sudden fright. Uchiha Fugaku had passed by to discuss something of great importance with Hana's mother, but soon left to the Uchiha compound. The night was an undisturbed one otherwise, only the sinking pit of Hana's stomach and the pattering rain on the roof giving her any comfort or company.

But there was a change, as she sat biting the insides of her lips as she looked passively through the clouded window, footsteps came briefly towards her room and her door slid open slowly to reveal her mother. Prudently waiting for Hana's blue eyes to look up to her, her frowning features never really seemed to see past the defeated girl before her, only looking into the defiant nature she processed the other day. Hana did notice that her mother looked slightly uptight and distrusting.

"Hana, there's someone here to see you." She spoke sternly, never gaining the respect of having her daughter look her in the eyes. "He's at the door, I told him you're not in the mood for visitors..."

Without a flicker of her swollen eyes, Hana stared ever absently out the window without drawing her gaze even once to meet the stone brown orbs of her mother, the dying thump in her chest pattering as lightly as the rain did on the roof. Hearing the footsteps of her mother stride away, towards the door no doubt, Hana had no aspiration to be graced by anyone's presence, though she did wonder who would ever want to visit her.

'_Maybe Itachi came to visit me... I wouldn't mind seeing him again_.' Thought Hana, her eyes briefly wandering to the half-closed door as she listened to the murmur of her mother talking with someone out front, apparently annoyed. '_She'll probably send him away... she never liked people visiting when I was younger and in hospital, she was the one who made me so lonely_. _And her strange talk with Fugaku last night may have been about him... wouldn't surprise me if they plan to never let us see each other again_.'

Then, with a tempting moment to creep through the hallway and see who her mother was sending away, Hana perked her head slightly, propping it further up as a pair of heavy steps came through the hall. They were quick paced, coming directly towards her door, the shout of her mother angrily following the heavy steps.

Peeking through her curling locks, eyes wider than before, Hana stared at those red-narrowed eyes.

Within the small gap between the door and the wall, Uchiha Itachi stood with an emotionless mask, only turning briefly to give her screaming mother an impending look so fierce Hana was shocked. She was never aware the Itachi could have such a murderous glint in his eyes, but as quick as it had appeared, they were gone. The red, stainless eyes gave an acute movement that Hana's blue orbs barely noticed, and for three long seconds Hana's body stood shaken and still. As the battering of rain grew more fierce and unkempt, red eyes turned back towards her and Itachi merely stepped aside as Hana's mother fell limply to the floor.

Churning loudly once again, Hana's stomach lurched in a gruesome crunch.

Itachi approached, ignoring the body at his feet, slowly stepping over the death-like-state of Hana's mother and stepped closer as the door was pushed open. Arms now gripping the frame beneath her body, Hana's eyes traveled to her mother, then back towards Itachi's hauntingly calm crimson eyes. Shaking with cold and now clammy hands, Hana's breath hitched as panic settled in.

"I did thank you before for allowing me to gain enough strength to go through with this..." Itachi spoke, his deep voice penetrating every depth of Hana's shock driven mind. "But I apologies now, I didn't know the true nature and depths of your family's involvement at the time."

Head briefly turning to the woman laying face first on the ground, his face remained somewhat inhumanly passive as he glanced back towards Hana. Nothing showed in his features, no emotions prevailed, nothing but the haunting pins that spun as his eyes moved from one form to the other. It was then that Hana quickly noticed Itachi's clothes, his chest clad in a thick beige armoured vest, black pants and shirt underneath it, the glint of shuriken and kunai edges sending shivers up her entire body. On his belt, a single white mask dangled from a flimsy string, the face of an anonymous cat etched into its features. Standing before the now frightened girl, Hana finally noticed that he was in full ANBU uniform, blood seeping slowly from his hands.

"Mother... mother... **mother**!"

_  
You're breaking my heart_

"What have you done to her!?" Hana shrieked, eyes filling with cold, wet tears of uttermost fear.

"What had to be done." Cold, dark eyes met with her, chilling her entire body. "You wanted freedom more than anything in this world, and I've now given it to you. You may not realize it now, but this is the inevitable, only now you've benefitted from my action too."

Shaken by his stoic and calm voice, Hana internally retracted as he took another step forward, towering over her as she began to pant uncontrollably. Breath caught in throat, heart thumping wildly and stomach squirming sickly, all Hana could do now was watch with teary eyes as Itachi lowered himself to her level.

"Do you believe in fate, Hana?" Itachi asked lightly with a breathy voice, eyes gazing into the watering depths of Hana's.

"What is fate, but a name we give to the misfortunes and joys in our lives?" Hana replied under her breath, eyes brimming with understanding as her insides slowed and awakened an eerie hole within her.

Something swept across her mind, her eyes widening a fraction and her face unclenching just a little. A realisation within her dawned upon Hana's mind as her eyes gently faded to dull orbs of blue and finally met with the determined red one's of Itachi. A vivid understanding into this red-eyed demon was shrouded by the bitter contempt in his actions, and further mystified by his intending words. Aged and tortured, they were two of the same. Lurching slightly, Hana began to understand the boy before her, his eyes shining comprehensively as hers did, his face drawing back as she merely stared equally as melancholic. Initially Hana felt like withdrawing, just as Itachi did as his eyes lingered over the top of her head for a while, but then as a gentle silence settled in Hana sat in a stillness which could only be seen as mimicking the dead.

Blinking, Hana flickered her eyes to Itachi's face, still passively waiting for something. His young features were handsome, although worn and overworked, his youthfulness still shone vibrantly as the two worlds he was subjected to reflected in his face- still young and healthy, yet older than any boy should ever be forced to be... Hana thought feebly that maybe if Itachi had never became a ninja, than maybe he would have grown to understand the bitterness of life differently. That maybe his actions need not be undertaken through violence and murder.

'_I understand... Loneliness is a bitter and unforgiving thing, no child, no man, not even I or him, should ever have to go through such harsh things...'_

"Does it frighten you...?" Itachi spoke slowly, almost as if he already knew the answer to his vague question, knowing that Hana was unbound to the world as everyone else was.

"I need to know something..." Hana spoke softly and in dismissal of Itachi's inquiry, her weary gaze lowering towards the frosty, waterlogged window to her side and into the eternal mystery of lifetimes to come. "Did you hurt your own family? That's why you killed her... because your father came here last night. Did you kill them too...?"

There was a horrid clench in her chest as something otherworldly grasped onto the dark hole that appeared there, leading straight to her heart and soul. Withering in her seat, Hana drew her legs towards her chest and strewed her arms over them as her chin settled onto one of her knees. Eyes clear from tears, they still stung from the red-puffy mess that her sobs had left behind. The clock inside of Hana's body drew closer to a halt than ever before, dread building into her stomach and head, everything blurring as an unimaginable pain shot through her neck.

Itachi's red piercing eyes stayed unnervingly still, only moving briefly as he turned his neck to watch Hana's oppressive form. The liquid red in his hands ran further downwards, pooling in his outstretched fingers and slowly blotching and tarnishing the floorboards on the ground.

"They were the cause and reason for action..." He spoke, never uttering a single tone of remorse for his filthy acts.

Hana cringed, both inwardly and out, as a gushing pain slurred her world and shot straight through her head. Blood, chilling in the cold murderous truth of the Uchiha prodigy behind her, ran sickly through Hana's veins as an icy shake racked her body and sent goosebumps around her bare arms. Almost as if Hana could hear the feint ticking in her ears, the world grew black and white and her eyes clamped shut quickly.

"Why...? Why did you do such horrible things?" Hana asked, her heart straining to pump the frosty blood through her body. "How can you live with the knowledge that you've tainted your own soul with such brutal actions?"

"Because..." Itachi began, his eyes morphing in a strange motion as they watched through the static window, an obstacle that ultimately Hana could never overcome. A hand raised to her forehead, Itachi's bloodied fingers gently pushing the veil of hair from her face as he stared so intensely into her own sullen eyes. "You gave me the strength to finally decide what I needed to do. I want to repay you, stop your suffering."

With a final lurch, Hana's insides grew still and her mind numb as her eyes met with the spinning wheels within Itachi's reflecting, demon-like eyes. Vividly, before the world around her grew into a dark abyss of nothing, the image of a white girl with angelic blue eyes lay defeated as the black, devilish red-eyed man smiled tenderly down at her.

"You're a demon in disguise... and you never fooled me for a second." She whispered out, eyes closing.

"And you..." Itachi laid one last caring glance on Hana's still body, her internal clock cracked as eyes never opened. "Were the foolish angel who played games with my heart."

_  
You took off your coat and stood in the rain  
You were always crazy like that_


End file.
